Why it works: Apricot and peach match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 342 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Marmalade
Ingredients
Directions
Boil the fruit and sugar together in a saucepan, stirring constantly.
Cook until it reaches a pulp-like consistency.
Remove from heat and let it cool completely before transferring to pots.
Do not cover the pots until the marmalade is completely cold.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Apricot + peachtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together342 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Apricot + plumtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together284 recipes
Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).
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Peach + plumtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together163 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Quince + appletop 1% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together506 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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Plum + appletop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together404 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fruit
- Provides the bulk, flavour and pectin that thicken the marmalade into a pulp.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the marmalade and helps it thicken and preserve as it cooks down.
The step that matters
Cook until pulp-like. Cooking must continue until the mixture thickens to a pulp; stopping early leaves it runny, while overcooking can scorch the sugar and fruit. Stirring constantly prevents sticking and burning on the base of the pan.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apricot, peach, quince, plum, apple, sugar):
- Pearfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against apricot, peach, quince, plum, apple, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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